In the electrical arts, and in particular in areas wherein electrical wires and/or cables are being installed in buildings and/or in other installations requiring numerous terminals and/or wires or cables to be installed at remote locations, considerable difficulties have been encountered in the order and/or to what circuit a given wire or cable is to be connected. Generally, it was the installer's practice to mark a given wire or cable in a makeshift manner with whatever means available by which the installer could identify which wire or cable was to be connected to a particular circuit or terminal. Thus, each installer would create his or her own personal identification arrangement which, over time, may fade or disappear. The difficulty encountered with such practice rendered such identification ineffective in the event another installer or electrician would later be required to complete, repair and/or alter a given wiring installation, e.g. in a residential or commercial building.
In the event of new construction, the identification of the wires or cables would, in the course of construction, be covered over by the finished wall causing the terminal ending of a given wire or cable to be unmarked. In the event any repairs at some future time were required, considerable difficulties have been encountered in determining which wire or cable is causing a circuit or an electric appliance to malfunction.
One such effect to alleviate this long standing problem is evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,208, which discloses a pad of labels in the form of pressure sensitive labels having a release liner wherein the labels are preprinted with a series of repeated numerals. The respective labels are so formed so as to be readily peeled off from the pad, released from its liner and wrapped about a wire to be identified. Such labels have limited application in that in a finished construction, the labels would not be visible as the label would be within a closed wall or behind a junction box or panel.
Another known effort is evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 7,063,282 B2 which discloses a “clip on” type of marker that includes an elongated oval configuration having a hole formed in the opposed ends of the elongated oval configuration whereby the holes are each provided with a cut or slit for enabling the marker to be clipped onto a wire. An apparent disadvantage of a “clip on” type tag or marker is that over time, such “clip on” markers are prone to also “clip off”, causing the associated wire to lose its identification.